Having lost their opening Champions League match by a 3-1 scoreline against Liverpool, AC Milan faced an even more difficult task in their second match of the league phase: an away match against reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen. Despite the expansion of the league phase to an eight-matchday Swiss bracket, it would nevertheless be very difficult for Milan to advance to the round of 16 if they were to open their campaign with two straight losses.
That, however, is exactly what happened. The Rossoneri succumbed to a 1-0 defeat following Victor Boniface’s goal in the 51st minute. Earlier in the match, Boniface actually did put the ball in the net; however, a VAR review showed that Leverkusen wing-back Jeremie Frimpong had been offside before sending in the cross which Nigerian striker Boniface had ostensibly finished off.
With seven minutes remaining in regulation time, French left-back Théo Hernandez came close to scoring Milan’s equalizer but saw his deflected shot from outside the penalty area strike the goalpost. That was as good as it got for Milan; they now face an arduous road to the last 16.
This past off-season, Milan embarked on a large-scale overhaul of their squad. They spent a total of €74 million on six players, brought in three more on loan deals, and added another on a free transfer. On the flipside, a laundry list of players departed the red half of the San Siro - though apart from veteran centre-forward Olivier Giroud, none of the players who left were regular starters. In addition, after almost five full seasons as Milan’s head coach, Stefano Pioli left for Saudi Arabia and was replaced by Paulo Fonseca.
In the 2022-23 season, Milan made it to the Champions League semifinals for the first time since winning it all back in the 2006-07 season. Despite losing to city rivals Inter to miss out on a spot in the final, Milan seemed to have something they could build off. Having won Serie A the season before and thus reclaiming the league title for the first time in 11 years, Milan seemed to be moving in the right direction.
However, last season was instead a step backwards. Inter cruised to a runaway league title victory, leaving Milan in their dust; though Milan finished second in the league, they were a whopping 19 points behind Inter. On the continental front, Milan couldn’t make it out of the Champions League group stage with Paris Saint-Germain beating them to the second qualifying spot from Group F on head-to-head goal difference. Milan would go on to drop into the Europa League where they would lose to Roma in the quarterfinals - the same Roma team which finished 12 points behind Milan in the league.
Milan got off to a slow start in this season’s Serie A, failing to win any of their first three matches. Shortly after that was their Champions League opener which they lost to Liverpool. Although it seemed as though last season’s Serie A runners-up had turned the corner following a Derby della Madonnina victory against Inter Milan, this latest result evidently proves that Milan are unlikely to have what it takes to make a deep run in this season’s Champions League.
Even at this early stage of his tenure in the Milan dugout, Fonseca is already under serious pressure; it wouldn’t be all that surprising if he were to be fired before the end of the season. Although the derby victory did buy the Portuguese coach a little more time, Fonseca has thus far struggled to understand what’s working and what isn’t with this Milan team.
Milan’s new signings haven’t made the impact the club would’ve hoped for. This could very well be a case of “too many changes all at once” - they haven’t really had much time to gel, and this could have affected their performance up to now. Though there’s every chance this could change as the season progresses, none of Milan’s signings were any which most might have expected to move the needle in any significant way.
Though it’s still early in the season, AC Milan already do look rather shaky. Domestically, a resurgent Napoli and Juventus have already gotten the jump on them. In the Champions League, they already have plenty of ground to make up. There’s still time to turn it around - but things don’t look promising at all.
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